Where do I realistically stand as a mid engineer on a senior heavy team?
Posted by Iampoorghini@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 41 comments
I’m trying to get an honest read on where I stand.
I went to a coding bootcamp and worked as a junior dev for about three years, mostly with Rails and React. I don’t feel like I gained as much real experience there as I should have.
Recently, a friend referred me to his company and I was hired as a mid engineer. The team is very senior heavy, and my friend is one of the top performers, which I believe helped me get in.
Since joining, I’ve been pushing myself hard, learning the new tech stack, getting familiar with the codebase structure, and rewatching system design material to really understand what’s going on. In just three months, I’ve learned more than I did in three years at my previous job, and I’ve been journaling my progress along the way.
That said, I’m struggling to contribute to larger scope work. During project scoping, I don’t know what questions to ask, and afterward I realize how much I didn’t understand. Everyone else is a senior, and I sometimes feel like I’m just there. Like big head from the Silicon Valley show.
It makes me wonder whether my role is truly needed, or if I’m mostly surviving because of the referral and decent social skills. People seem to like me, but I worry that ‘being likable’ isn’t enough to be a competent engineer.
Is this a normal stage of growth when moving into a stronger team, or a sign that I’m in over my head? How do mid level engineers actually add value in environments like this?
Healthy-Dress-7492@reddit
Your fine man just relax. The jump from mid to senior is more about broadening beyond technical skills- ownership of increasingly large chunks of the code base, communication- how you work with stakeholders, colleagues and this stuff takes time.
It sounds like you’re doing all the right things and getting fully up to speed on new tech/codebase can easily take 4-6 months or more in some cases depending on how complicated the work is.
You can always talk to your manager and try to get a sense for how your performance is being viewed; I’d theyre happy? Enjoy it because being senior may even be much less fun than you think.
HiSimpy@reddit
This is a common coordination gap on senior-heavy teams. When role boundaries are implicit, mid-level engineers either over-wait for permission or overstep and trigger review friction. A lightweight fix is documenting decision rights by scope (architecture, implementation, rollout) so ownership is explicit before work starts.
lordnacho666@reddit
If you're mid, expectations are for mid.
Help out with some tasks, do some grunt work, soon you'll have seen all the strange corners of the code and you can start making judgements like a senior.
Don't worry, you'll be fine.
-no_aura-@reddit
I’d also add, it sounds like OP is only three months in. At that point in a new position they’re doing everything right and seem committed to learning the new stack and codebase architecture and standards.
Most companies won’t expect a newly hired engineer to be fully onboarded and up to speed for the first 6 months to a year. You’re doing fine, keep going.
Iampoorghini@reddit (OP)
Yeah for sure, I’m taking on all the grunt work. Thanks!
Far-Policy5814@reddit
The bigger picture questions will come naturally with time as you deal with the consequences of your and other team mebers design decisions. That long running process that keeps timing out requests? Next time you face a similar problem, you consider moving it into a background job.
rescue_inhaler_4life@reddit
Lots of people to learn from and your mate vetted you in, best possible situation. Pay attention and slurp all the knowledge you can. Yes you are way ahead in your career, that is a good thing, it's an opportunity, take advantage of it!
Solracdelsol@reddit
Don't stress too hard about it tbh. They know you're a mid level. You're SUPPOSED to ask questions and learn, they understand that you're trying to grow, and it's good that you're showing the effort OP. Especially if your coworkers are friendly they are happy to help as you grow more autonomous.
I have been in your shoes. The best thing as a mid level eng working with all seniors, you begin to understand what exactly makes a person a senior. Just do your work and learn how people with more experience make big impact and the scope of their work.
tiny_guppy@reddit
Oh man, OP I'm right there with you-- thought I was the only one going through this kind of dynamic
_some_asshole@reddit
There are two kinds of teams. Teams with more ‘real’ work than people and teams with more people than work. If you’re in the first, everyone will be very happy to help you up level. As a senior person if a mid eng wanted to take on more scope and wanted to learn I’d be happy to coach them and happy to help them grow. If you’re in the second, I’ll feel compelled to crush you to keep my job secure ;)
rupayanc@reddit
being the least experienced person on a senior heavy team is genuinely one of the best situations you can be in early-career, even if it feels uncomfortable. the gap you're noticing isn't failure, it's signal about where to grow.
systembreaker@reddit
You stand as a mid.
It's a professional environment, they're not gonna like make fun of you like it's middle school for having less experience lol. Be friendly with the seniors and do your best to be open to learning from them. As you gain experience with that team, start speaking up about ideas as well. Don't worry if it gets shot down, enthusiastically take it in stride as another learning moment from the senior devs.
In no time you'll be keeping up with them and they'll feel like you're a great team member and you might just get bumped up to senior.
Iampoorghini@reddit (OP)
Great point. One of them only has four years of experience, which on paper is just one year ahead of mine, but skill wise he’s light-years ahead and is soon to be a tech lead.
But yeah, they’ve been good about asking follow-up questions like Why do you want to take that route? and being surrounded by them, I’m picking up their skills
lenfakii@reddit
Four years experience is a drop in the ocean of your career. You're at the very start! Don't sweat it :D
Just_Prune_5459@reddit
You’re in a great position, don’t waste it.
I joined a very senior, engineering-heavy team as the only mid-level engineer and felt the same way. It took time, but I got over it and started leaning into it instead of shrinking back. I paid attention to how they worked, how they made decisions, and I asked a lot of questions until things clicked.
I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time. It only really hit me when I joined my next company as a senior and realized how much I had learned just by being around people at that level.
If you can push through the insecurity, it’s one of the best ways to grow fast.
Iampoorghini@reddit (OP)
This is helpful, thanks! Yeah I started journaling the progress because I want to make sure that when I leave the company, I’m at a senior level or at least close to it
anotherrhombus@reddit
Well, we hired a mid level for our team that takes 2 years to ramp up on. So far he's been nice to have around to help shore up our processes and documentation. Help tackle all of the minor maintenance tasks that we struggle to get automated because LLMs have been worthless there and because we just have too much going on.
He came from the delivery portion of our business and we're more Devops, operations, and the team that handles everything everyone else failed at. We're a small team, so anything helps, but having his perspective has been a great way for us to get a little better at telling people how we can help them.
I can't answer for your team, but simply trying to explain things to another can be a terrific way to make changes and find friction. My team for the most part is patient and we're working together constantly because shit hits the fan and the sky falls constantly around us lol.
I wouldn't be too worried. Hopefully you can ask questions, use PRs as a way to learn. If there is one particular system everyone seems to hate, that's probably the one you want to learn assuming it's important.
Acceptable_Durian868@reddit
This is an awesome opportunity for you. Focus on gaining experience and learning from your team. Don't be afraid to ask questions when you don't understand. Your specific situation is actually perfect for this as well, because since everybody is senior, you can spread your questions around so you're not putting too much on one particular team member.
kruvii@reddit
Do you want to be the CTO? If so, you probably need to jump to another company because there is a thick layer above you.
Iampoorghini@reddit (OP)
Definitely not at my current level haha
Fair_Local_588@reddit
I’m a senior on a senior-heavy team, but I started as a mid there. Being likable is a large part of it. As long as you’re learning, being a team player and not burdening the team, you’re fine.
You will become more senior over time as you see similarities between designs and lead your own projects.
What you can do right now to expedite this plus help during design discussions is ask the “dumb” questions but in a nice way. “I’m probably missing something here - how does X happen/how do we handle Y”? These are total wins because the designer gets to answer a softball question, you learn something new, and anyone that might have been unsure that also has their question answered.
If someone has an insightful moment you can also ask them after the meeting how they knew to do that. Again, they’ll be probably pretty happy to explain it to you.
Iampoorghini@reddit (OP)
Oh this is actually great. Yeah I need to utilize my mid title to ask ‘dumb’ questioned without being judged.
That’s a good question to ask, I’ll try to ask similar one on the next meeting. Thanks for the input!
Fair_Local_588@reddit
Also senior people can and do ask these questions. I try to at least.
RepresentativePlan60@reddit
Agreed! I’m a tech lead on a new team primarily handling defects. We’re now beginning to touch some really messy integration defects that involve lots of downstream services that I couldn’t possibly know all the details of. “Explain it like I’m five” and “Let me walk through my current understanding of how these systems/services tie together in context of this defect and please correct me where I’m wrong” are really valuable things to have in my toolkit! At the senior level, being able to forge a common understanding of a knotty issue is a super important skill.
Trick-Interaction396@reddit
Sounds like a tremendous learning opportunity
RepresentativePlan60@reddit
Look, if my team hired a mid-level engineer who was as serious about their upskilling and learning the team’s development context as you have been for three months, I’d be over the moon.
You’re trying to apply the standards for your team’s seniors to yourself, a mid level engineer who’s only been there for three months. If they wanted another senior they would have hired a senior. But they didn’t - they wanted a mid-level and hired you.
This sounds like impostor syndrome to me. Talk to your friend about your concerns, but from what you’ve laid out here, you’ve had a great first three months and you can see what kinds of skills you’ll need to get to the next level. Stay curious, stay journaling your progress, and keep at it!
PPatBoyd@reddit
FR if half of my mid or soft-senior colleagues had this level of introspection, we'd be having a much better time collaborating, cutting through the BS, and getting shit done.
U/Iampoorghini you're doing fine -- have a lunch or coffee chat with your coworker the next time they ask a question you didn't understand or find interesting. Those are opportunities to learn, cultivate a relationship and healthy team atmosphere, and it'll look good to your seniors that you're engaged and interested.
RepresentativePlan60@reddit
Completely agree on the introspection bit! OP is demonstrating in spades why their friend pushed for them to be hired
Iampoorghini@reddit (OP)
The opening was a senior role, but I was hired as a mid level. So I do feel like my friends referral played a big role. But thanks for the input!
symbiatch@reddit
I’ll let you in on a secret: during scoping, refinement, and so on a lot of people blank out also. Things seem to be clear. Everything is fine. No questions.
Then we get to implementation. Or sometimes just a few hours after the meeting where it all was clear. Did we consider this? Where’s that explained? What about that?
So it might be others don’t know what to ask either and only later figure stuff out. Or they just happen to know things by heart already and don’t ask. Or they assume.
You’re on a good path since you’re thinking about these things. Don’t jump into impostor syndrome or second guessing yourself. Do your work, keep improving, if you have good rapport with your friend maybe they can work as a “buddy” or at least as a sounding board and feedback provider? That might help you get into a better mindset about things.
But main point is: a lot of us are the same even after plenty of years. Things aren’t always simple and clear even when they feel like it. And sometimes they’re simple when they don’t feel like it.
PayLegitimate7167@reddit
Observe what questions they ask and if they actually were meaningful. That’s it take it easy and learn. Which senior in the team do you look and to and respect the most, observe what they do differently. Otherwise senior is just a title
s_i_leigh@reddit
2 things pop to mind:
1: Embrace direct mentorship. If you're in-office, make a habit of asking technical questions from those more senior devs around you. It sounds like you try to read as much as possible before bothering others, but that mostly helps answering "what is this design". After you have that baseline, you need to communicate with the authors to extract "why did we make these decisions". (AI can suggest possible reasons for "why", but the actual reasoning is usually not documented). You'll grow way faster with 1 or 2 hours of direct communication per week vs 40 hours of independent research.
2: When you are lost in a meeting, interrupt and ask for an explanation. You'll be surprised how often you'll find that others were only following the conversation at a shallow level and the dots don't actually connect. You've only been there a few months, no one will dismiss you for asking questions.
Iampoorghini@reddit (OP)
actionerror@reddit
Is your friend a senior too? Get advice and feedback from him perhaps.
Iampoorghini@reddit (OP)
Yeah he is, but he works on a different project so I haven’t gotten a chance to work with him at all
dionys@reddit
I feel like you're in a great position to learn as much as you can from this team. And I think your imposter feelings are normal. When you say at the end of the meeting you don't understand - is it the technical decisions you're struggling with? Or are you lost at the technical lingo?
It seems you have a good relationship with the team, you even have a close friend there. What worked for me in the past is asking - "can you explain the decision here?" If you feel like there's too much pressure during the meeting itself, is there any chance you can ask for a 1-1 with the team member responsible for the specific project? Or alternatively directly with your friend?
Iampoorghini@reddit (OP)
Both the technical and design decisions. They asked me if I had any questions, but I didn’t have anything valuable to ask at the time. I took notes on what I didn’t understand and looked it up later.
He’s not really a close friend, more of a classmate, so we don’t know each other that well. But I do get along with basically everyone on my team. I know my manager has one-on-ones with all of them, and I know he asks about my technical skills because my manager has given me some feedback based on the team’s input.
That’s a good question! And yes, I’ve gotten pretty close with one of them through working out together, so I should have a one-on-one with him to ask these things
EstablishmentNo2606@reddit
+1. As a staff / senior eng now, sometimes I miss the days of being surrounded by folks who are more experienced than me whom I can learn from - savor it!
metaphorm@reddit
why are you being so hard on yourself? you've only recently joined a company and are ramping up on the tech and the business.
ZukowskiHardware@reddit
Totally normal. Just focus on doing the smaller things you get well.
f_djt_and_the_usa@reddit
Sounds like you're doing great. Keep going. Ask for help when you need it. They don't expect you to be senior if they hired you as mid